My planning style has grown with the use of the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. It is an excellent book for those who want to regain control of all your to-do’s, projects, events, and life in general. If you’d like to read it, check out the link above.
Allen takes you through 5 simple steps: Capture, Process, Organize, Reflect, and To-Do. I’ll go through each one and explore what it means to me and my planning methods.
CAPTURE: The key here is to create a space where you can capture all items. Personally, I use an expandable folder I found at a local home furnishing store. This is where all my mail, projects, events, schedules, you name it, gets put so I can ‘Process’ it. Collecting these things is the fun part, it’s the processing that takes the most time.
PROCESS: During the processing stage, we review each item and identify the next steps for that item. Some are just FYI’s and can be filed away for reference or thrown away. Once we have identified each of the items and their next steps, we are ready to move on to organization.
ORGANIZE: Having once place that encompasses all items is super beneficial. I use the app ‘Reminders,’ it syncs effortlessly on all my apple devices. This is so great because I can access my tasks no matter what device I am working on at the time. Even better, I can create folders for each category and create sub- lists, add due dates, notes, and links to relevant websites.
REFLECT: Schedule time to review your items and take note of what you have yet to accomplish. I usually ask myself what is due that day, week, month, etc. I take note of the tasks that will take the most time and whether I have everything I need in order to complete them. Some tasks seem easier than they are, we must make sure we are detailed and expand the steps into smaller ones. If you need two weeks to complete a task, mark it, or add another task to ‘check-in’ with that specific task. Set milestones for yourself and take time to reflect. Make sure the goals, tasks, and projects you have set for yourself align with the direction you want to go in. If something isn’t working, or you see there is a particular area lacking progress – dig deeper, explore your options, and find solutions.
TO-DO: For me, creating to-do lists goes hand in hand with reflection. I spend Sunday evenings to create my goals and tasks for the upcoming week. I tend to pick a few items that absolutely need to get done. The rest of the items, while they are still important, won’t cause world-ending problems for me if they don’t get done. The key is not to set yourself up for failure by putting additional stress on yourself, life is already full of it. As nice as it feels to check all your items as complete, give yourself grace.
This is where the book ends and I'll add my additional step, Vision boards
VISION BOARDS: Create a vision board full of reminders and inspirational images to keep you on track. You can use it for ANYTHING, goals, wish lists, inspiring quotes – it’s totally up to you.
You can create vision boards in many ways, on a poster or in your journal, personally I use Pinterest to create a virtual one, that way I can look at it anywhere and at any time. Save each year in a folder and this way you can look back to see how you have progressed. It is a great mind-space exercise as well. I have noticed when I have a particularly crappy day, I search for snarky or sarcastic quotes that seem relatable in that moment, but a few days later when I am not in my head, I see how off-track I’ve become. Take advantage of the algorithms that Pinterest has created and let your mindset be driven by positivity and things that you want for you, your family, and your surroundings.
The goal is to create a board that inspires you.
Ask yourself questions like;
- What do I want to learn?
- What do I want to accomplish this year?
- Is there anything I want to work towards?
- What makes me happy? Am I making choices to maintain my happiness?
- What attitudes or habits do I want to change or get rid of?
- Financially, am I where I need to be? How can I change this?
- Am I struggling with something at the moment? What would help face this challenges?
